Saturday, December 16, 2006

The week in review

What a week. Sunday, I flew home, leaving Mom in the hospital. Her back was still in considerable pain, which had me worried. I worried about injury due to the way she had twisted it.

Monday, I started the new job. No boss, no predecessor, no real guide to show me the ropes of my own position; and the phone calls started the first day:

"We need to meet to discuss the marketing of my department. When can you see me? Wednesday is good for me."I just started today, and you know I have no boss to ask for background. Could you give me a week or two to acclimate before you start asking for things, you pushy ass?

"Your boss was reviewing a brochure for us that she had on her desk for three months. We need to get it printed next week!"Um, if this was such an emergency, don't you think you should have been asking my (ex) boss for this two months ago?!

"The marketing strategy for 2007 hasn't been developed yet, and needs to be completed by next week."Oh, yes, I'm sure you want me, a novice to this work discipline, to be creating a strategy in a week that would have required my predecessor several weeks, according to other staff, and I have just stepped into this position. Brilliant.

But there were some high points. My first day, there was a holiday evening out for all the management team. It was fun meeting a lot of new people and the food was good...when I finally was able to eat, an hour and a half after the thing started. My drinks were really working on me, having had no lunch that day.

The second day, more phone calls, more emergencies. And my mom called to tell me that they read the MRI that was done on her back on Sunday, and that she had a compressed vertebra due to a large fracture. She could either see if she could stand the pain, or have a relatively new type of surgery to try and correct the situation. She quickly said "no more surgeries!" Jess and I tried to talk her into it.

By the end of the Wednesday, my mom's back was hurting so bad that she decided to listen to Jess and me and have the surgery. I was worried since this kyphoplasty procedure hasn't been around all that long. She was, too.

On Thursday, they came in the late afternoon to take her into surgery and worked until about 7:00, when I got a call from my sister to say that she was doing very well and that they thought that it would be very successful for her. Whew.

Friday, she was dismissed from the hospital and my sister took her home, where she is recovering now. She will have to use a walker for about 6-8 weeks, though, knowing her, she will try to rid herself of it as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, she can't sleep in her bed because it isn't firm enough and sits too high off the floor for her to now get into and out of comfortably, so she has to sleep in her recliner, which isn't that terrific.

Friday was also a fun day at work. They had an all-staff party in the cafeteria (they actually have restaurant-quality food at our cafeteria - seriously!) and so we were treated to a free lavish lunch...a table of traditional fare such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, crusty bread, and cranberry sauce; a table of Italian fare, with lasagna, eggplant rollatini, sausage and peppers, plates of different antipasto, mozzarella and tomato/basil salad, breadsticks, and more; an entire station with nothing but salads - green salad, mesclun, potato salad, cole slaw, three-bean salad, etc.; an Asian station with freshly-rolled sushi (not for me), spring rolls, spicy chicken, pepper steak, lo mein, tempura shrimp skewers, and kim chee; and a Jamaican station, with spicy beef patties, a cabbage dish, a potato dish, and jerk chicken. There was even an eggnog station (no booze, of course). And then for dessert, there was a dessert station: home-made rice pudding with raisins; ginger cake rolls, chocolate cake rolls, and white cake rolls; Snickers pie; a decadent deep-dish apple pie with a caramel glaze; pecan pie; a chocolate fountain with marshmallows, strawberries, and pineapple pieces; and an amazing chocolate mousse cake. There was a deejay, and top management staff all lined up shaking everyone's hand as they came in, and of course, management people were also serving the hungry diners. It was all pretty amazing. It kind of made up for the back-breaking week. Kind of.

I'm still trying to figure out if I like the new place. There are many things about it that aren't as good as the last place. My computer, which I live by, is one of them. The computer is slow and clunky, and the CD drive doesn't even work. And from my understanding, the place runs on such an austere budget, I won't be getting a new one anytime soon. Hmmm. But I do like almost everyone in my office.

At any rate, I hopped a train into the city last night to meet Jess, and we went to BLT Burger (thanks, Anita, it's a regular haunt now!) and then uptown to see the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company, which I really enjoyed. I have liked Raul Esparza since seeing him in tick, tick...BOOM! off-Broadway, and he didn't disappoint. The entire cast was pretty good, some were amazing, and I loved that the cast also acted as the orchestra, all playing instruments. It was quite a feat. And of course, the music is all Sondheim, so it's really top-notch. I recommend it highly!

Okay, so that's the week and the catch-up. Today, I have to bake cookies for a family holiday party this afternoon, and later, we have to go pick up some of Jess' prints I had framed for work. Fun!